Morality from an intercultural perspective: egocentric and allocentric attribution of responsibility

• Applicant: Dr. Carina Pape
• Subject Area: Practical Philosophy
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 447925413

The proposed research project investigates moral practices and their linguistic expressions in different cultures. Following J.L. Austin, these practices and expressions are described using the social practice of accusations and excuses as an example. In addition, the moral education underlying this practice is examined. In particular, examples from English, German, Russian and Japanese will be analyzed. There are clear differences between these exemplarily examined European and East Asian cultures that have not been considered in moral philosophy so far. For example, most of the “apology formulas” in Japanese, such as “sumimasen” or “shitsureishimasu”, do not constitute an apology at all, as Austin described them for European culture. Instead, they could rather be described as self-accusation formulas, which illustrates the core difference in the practice of attributing responsibility in these cultures. In both linguistic expressions and practices, there is a clear tendency towards an egocentric attribution of responsibility in Japan and an allocentric attribution of responsibility in European cultures. This will be illustrated by case studies from media, literature and politics. The description of the practices and their differences aims at enriching the moral-philosophical discourse: What significance does the diversity of linguistic manifestations of morality and the associated practices have for current moral philosophical theses on responsibility, on the justification of moral attitudes or of the blaming of others? In addition to this intercultural enrichment of the moral-philosophical discourse, moral evaluations of cultures will be also criticized in return, especially the still very present notion of shame and guilt cultures. In this notion, the phenomenon of shame and the “shame practice”, which is perceived in a shortened form from the “guilt culture” perspective, is all too often completely denied moral value. As an alternative to this colonialist or Eurocentric description of cultures, an allocentric and an egocentric model of attributing responsibility is proposed. These are also described on the basis of pedagogical concepts and practices in the different cultures, with a focus on the Japanese and, up to now, especially internationally hardly recognized practice of hansei (self-reflection). Both models have their own strengths and weaknesses. A comparison can reveal not only the weaknesses but also the strengths of the respective model. Such comparison can be used for moral-philosophical reflection as well as for a moral-philosophically based education.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants